Sybil's Baked Whole Fish

Ingredients

• 1.whole fish, Cape salmon, kabeljou, or yellowtail; well seasoned inside and outside
• 2.seasoning, salt, pepper, Maggi Fondor, a generous amount of Seafood Spice; inside and outside
• 3.bay leaves, placed inside fish
• 4.black peppercorns, placed inside fish
• 5.allspice berries, placed inside fish
• 6.2 carrots, sliced; placed inside fish
• 7.fennel, cut up; placed inside fish; optional
• 8.water, fills roaster halfway
• 9.white wine, fills roaster the other half
• 10.2 onion, cut up; added to roaster

Method

1. 1.Wash the whole fish very well. Season inside and outside with salt, pepper, Maggi Fondor and a generous amount of Seafood Spice.
2. 2.Inside the fish put a few bayleaves, a few peppercorns, a few allspice, 2 sliced carrots and some cut-up fennel if available.
3. 3.Wrap the fish in a muslin cloth and place on the rack of a roaster.
4. 4.Fill the roaster ½ way with water and another ½ way with white wine. Add two cut-up onions.
5. 5.Cover and bake at 400°F (200°C).
6. 6.GUIDE TO BAKING TIME: Measure fish around the thickest part. For every inch, cook for 10 minutes and 10 minutes over. (1 inch = 2.5 cm.) Test for done by pricking with a skewer — no pink juices should run out.
7. 7.When cooked, take out of oven and let cool in stock.
8. 8.When cool, remove fish from muslin. Remove everything from inside the fish.
9. 9.Skin and reseason lightly with salt, pepper and Maggi. Strain and reserve the stock. Fish might be easier to skin when warm.
10. 10.Choose the platter you are to serve from. Lay down a bed of the coating sauce. Put fish on this bed. Coat top of fish with the same sauce and trim as desired.

Notes

• See also: Coating Sauce for the Baked Fish — the sauce used to dress this recipe.
• Muslin cloth is essential — it keeps the fish intact and makes skinning easy.
• Maggi Fondor = Swiss seasoning salt widely used in South African cooking.
• Seafood Spice = a South African spice blend for fish.
• Cape salmon (geelbek) = Atractoscion aequidens. Kabeljou = kob/cob. Yellowtail = Seriola lalandi.